FICSA Update No. 03 2001

23 January 2001

Solomonic judgement in "Mehri-gate"

  1. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, has responded to FICSA's urgent request to uphold freedom of association in his own house, consistent with his own request made to world business in the Global Compact.

  2. It will be recalled that, on Tuesday, 21 November 2000, a faction of the Staff Council of the United Nations headquarters in New York decided to oust ("recall") the President of the Staff Union, Ms. Mehri Madarshahi, and the two Vice-Presidents, Mr. Ferdinand Lyn and Ms. Sema Gurun, this in the absence of the latter and on the basis of a procedure that was flawed in several respects. On Thursday, 30 November, new officers were elected and management was informed accordingly.

  3. With greatest diligence, the United Nations management recognized the newly-elected officers. Indeed, on the next day, Mr. Joseph Connor, Under-Secretary-General for the Department of Management, wrote to Ms. Madarshahi stating that:

    "As the Secretary-General has been advised by the Legal Counsel that the actions of the 39th Staff Council present a prima facie case of regularity and compliance with the established rules and procedures set out in the Statute and Rules of the Staff Union, he has decided to recognize the legitimacy of the elections of the newly elected officers of the Staff Committee."
  4. And on Monday, 4 December, Ms. Madarshahi was even instructed by Ms. Rafiah Salim, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management, to:

    "effect the transition to the newly-elected officers by Friday, 8 December 2000".
  5. FICSA could not remain idle. On 8 December, a letter was addressed to Mr. Kofi Annan urging him to remedy the situation.

  6. We have now been informed that Mr. Connor wrote the following to Ms. Madarshahi on 22 December:

    "I would like to confirm that the Secretary-General has decided that following the expiration of the mandate of the current Staff Council on 31 December 2000, it will be recognized beyond that date only to the extent necessary to organize and hold new elections."
  7. We note that, whilst the illegitimate group was recognized in no time, it took much longer to find a way out of the unfortunate situation created by ill-based and hasty advice. FICSA welcomes Mr. Annan's Solomonic judgement (although...) and is glad to have contributed to it.